Bits and Bites

Mother's Day Brunches -- Sunday, May 11th
-- No Va, 4 course brunch $35/person, 87 Rainey Street
-- Sagra, $29.95/person, 1050 E. 11th Street
-- Finn and Porter, 11 am - 3 pm, $55/person at the Downtown Hilton Hotel, 500 E. 4th Street
-- All three Mandola's and Trattoria Lisina will be offering brunch
-- Chavez, 10:30 am - 2:30 pm, $19/kids + $49/adults, at the Radisson Hotel, 111 E. Cesar Chavez
-- Olive + June, 11 am - 2 pm, $37/adults (under 12 years old, free), 3411 Glenview
-- The Carillon at the AT + T Center on the UT Campus, 4 seatings, $65/adults, $19.95/kids ages 6 - 12
-- Swift's Attic, 11am - 3 pm is offering free mimosas for moms!

New/updated
-- Pleasant Storage Room will be bringing the culture of Cuba and lots of rum to their new spot at 208 W. 4th Street
-- Red Mango frozen yogurt and smoothie bar is coming to  3401 South Lamar late this spring
-- P. Terry's (multiple locations) has a new website and a delicious coffee milkshake (limited time on the milkshake!)
-- Pelon's Tex-Mex at 802 Red River has an updated menu, and have announced that with every purchase of the shrimp and lobster enchiladas, $2 will be given to the St. Baldrick Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding research to curing childhood cancers.
-- Jack Allen's Kitchen will take over the old Trento space at 3600-D Capital of Texas Highway, in Davenport Center
-- Hopdoddy has announced some new menu items, including new cocktails, a quinoa side dish, and a chicken burger with a lot of spiciness to it! 
-- GoodLife Food Park, a new food truck park, will open at the northeast corner of IH-35 and Cesar Chavez later this month.

Events
-- A new food truck competitive reality TV series on Food Network will be filming in Austin the next two weeks; they need extras to be food truck customers! If interested, please send an email to FaceOffATX.2014@gmail.com with your name, phone, email and preferred date of attendance; the first 60 people to each taping receives $10 towards food.
     -- Wednesday, May 7th @ 1pm on South Congress (gravel lot next to Vespaio

          -- Thursday, May 8th @ 1pm at Midway Food Park
          -- Wednesday, May 14th @1pm at Republic Square

      -- Thursday, May 15th @ 8pm at South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery
-- Culture Map's Tastemaker Awards, May 7th at  Brazos Hall, 204 E. 4th, $45
-- Jazz brunches at Hotel San Jose, May 10th and 24th,10 am - 2 pm, $24/person
-- Austin Restaurant Week, May 11 - 14 and 18 - 21, two course prix-fixe lunches for $12-17, and three course dinners for $27-37 at participating restaurants, with $2 from every meal supporting Meals on Wheels.
-- Celebrate American Craft Beer Week with various events in town. Hopefully Craft Taste will be covering some of these! 
-- The Great Austin Food Race, benefiting the Austin Food and Wine Alliance's Culinary Grant Program will be Wed., May 14th. Teams of foodies will race around East Austin in search of clues in this unique scavenger hunt.
-- Dishcrawl will bring their foodie tours to the UT campus and State Capitol areas, on May 21st. Join in for a progressive dinner to three area restaurants; tickets are $45/person, and the secret meeting spot will be revealed 48 hours before the event.
-- MAIFEST, on May 31st, the German seasonal celebration, will take place at Saengerrunde Hall, 1607 San Jacinto Blvd; $25/person, proceeds benefit Foodways Texas.
-- Sipping Social, June 21st, 7 - 10 pm, $45/person for early bird tickets, benefiting Edible Austin.
-- I had a fun time last weekend at the Austin Food and Wine Fest! Favorites were this massive scallop from the Irish tourism people, cooked by famed chef Kevin Dundon (in grey jacket). Other faves -- the buttermint ice cream from Jeni's, fried Brussels from Tapas Bravas, and the pork and escabeche taco from Jack Allen's; more pictures on my Instagram page.

 Closed
-- Tamale House #3 at 5003 Airport Blvd., has shuttered after the recent passing of the owner.

Art's Ribs

Ahh, I fondly remember the days of having Artz Rib House on South Lamar, less than two miles from my house. Sadly that location closed about two years ago leaving a huge void in my baby back rib consumption (here's one of my early blog posts on Artz). Not to mention they were a bit of a South Austin institution, with live music, much of it bluegrass, several nights out of the week. Owner Art Blondin has bounced around since the closing of his namesake, but it appears he's landed upright and is in business again. Head about an hour north my friends, to Florence, TX.

Art found this building for rent on Craigslist; it was a former barbeque spot, and I am guessing it had all the right infrastructure to make it worthwhile. (Ignore the "Flaming Grill" part; you can sort of see his Art's Ribs sign in the window, and since I took this photo, he's gotten the hanging sign on the left replaced.) I visited the new Art's (slight name change from the one on South Lamar) last month, and got to see the pitmaster himself, whom I have been acquaintances with for a number of years. I wasted no time in getting my beloved baby backs, and they were just as good as I remember them -- tender, meaty, and just darn good. Art even commented on how the batch of baby backs we were eating were exceptionally large. And look at that smoke ring on the brisket and the ribs! The potato salad and cole slaw are solid too; both had good taste and consistency.

Art was wonderful to bring us a pork loin chop that was fresh off the grill. Here you can see the before and after shots! It was pure smoky meat, thick and juicy. It doesn't get a whole lot better!

Here's a shot of the menu board. Prices are on par with other BBQ spots.

And here's a great shot of Art with his smoker; this was taken by my friend Phillip Patterson, who has taken a number of pictures of Art and his new place, some of which are on the Facebook page.

Photo by Phillip Patterson, used with permission.

So PLEASE, do yourselves a favor and take a little drive north to Florence (Hwy. 183 to RR 138); they're located on Main Street (it's only about two blocks long) and you can't miss it. If you're a pork rib lover, this is absolutely the place to be!
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Added Sept. 1, 2014: It is with great sadness that I share Art's unexpected passing this past weekend. I have no idea what will happen to the restaurant in Florence, but with no Art.....Hope he's enjoying some baby backs wherever he is. 

Southern Traditions Meats

Some home cooking time! I was invited by Southern Traditions meats to try out a couple of their fresh, grassfed meats. (I was not paid for my opinion of their products.) They are a family-operated farm in Briggs (between Lampasas and Georgetown) that does not use any hormones, antibiotics, or corn in the raising of their animals, and have various cuts of beef, goat, and lamb available.

I picked up some ground lamb and beef at the Hope Farmers Market back in March. With the lamb, I made my favorite lamb meatball recipe that I've made for years. It's got mint, currants, and sesame seeds in them for a bit of a Middle Eastern flair. I cook these in the oven, and use a stoneware dish that has the ridges in it, so the whatever you're cooking sits up, away from the fat that renders. Well, the rendered fat from these lamb meatballs was crystal clear with few impurities -- a sign to me that this is high quality meat! Add a homemade tzatziki sauce and voila!

And of course with the ground beef, I made a big ol' burger! Seared it in a cast iron skillet and finished it off in the oven. Pretzel bun and some leftover pimento cheese from a friend! Delicious.

I would definitely get their meats again, and would love to try some local lamb chops! Look for Southern Traditions meats on Saturdays at the Cedar Park and SFC downtown markets or Sundays at Hope and Lone Star (at the Hill Country Galleria) markets.

Recent Eats, part two

Picking up where we left off, the end of March and the beginning of April were a time of LOTS of good eats! Here's a few more tasty spots.

I was practically kidnapped by a longtime friend who insisted we go eat at North up at the Domain. And while they are a small chain (only six locations nationwide), they do make all of their food in-house, including the pasta. Turned out to be a really great meal! We started with the mussels, which have little bits of salami in the white wine and garlic broth; one of the best bowls of mussels I've had in a while.

I had the strozzapreti, a hearty pasta dish with chicken, mushrooms, spinach, and pine nuts. Very filling, I happily took half of this home for leftovers.

And dessert. Their tiramisu had a nice touch with teeny little crispy chocolate caviar balls on the top; it could have had a bit more espresso flavor to it, but the balls and the glass bowl alone made up for it. I LOVE this glass bowl, and would love to purchase some...there were no markings on the bottom of it, and I've started searching online, to no avail. Probably a 10 - 12 ounce capacity, and 4 inches in diameter at the top. If you have suggestions on where to find, please let me know!

Very pleasantly surprised by North. Our server was great, and at 2 o'clock on a Saturday, the place was packed. Also liked the creativeness in serving some of the dishes on wooden boards, which we saw at nearby tables.

One of my blogger friends had commented on one of my recent pictures from Asia Cafe (a place I have been numerous times and really enjoy), and the conversation led to us making a date to go to Szechuan House on Burnet Road, a place she really likes and I have heard good things about. Five of us met for an early Sunday dinner, and after a lengthy time studying the menu, I think we ordered some great dishes!

At the top of the picture, are the #A4 steamed dumpling with pork. They had a nice thin (but not too thin) dough around them with a multitude of tiny pleats!  Beneath it is #F9 fish with fiery sauce; we all thought this dish was okay, but maybe not the best of our assortment. It was a bit more like fish stew, and while tasty, it wasn't extremely hot (as in spicy). A crispy/fried fish would have given the whole thing a bit more body and texture. The #V6 dry fried green beans were yummy! Now they did come with a little bit of ground meat on them (and its not mentioned on the menu), so if you're vegetarian, be sure to ask them to hold off.  In the bottom left is #T1, ma po tofu with ground pork (I remember the server did ask us if we wanted meat with the tofu dish, but I don't think they asked us on the green beans.) This (and the fish dish) had some nice szechuan peppercorn flavor as well as being bathed in chili oil. If you haven't had them before (or maybe you have and didn't know what you were eating) the peppercorns produce a nice tingly, mildly numbing and tastebud-altering affect in your mouth. The #V7 was three kinds of mushrooms in a light brown sauce; the mushrooms had a really nice light smoky flavor and overall was a favorite dish. Not pictured is #P1, the twice cooked pork, which was thin strips of pork belly sauteed with green onions; very tasty, but I would love it a bit more cooked.

You can bring your own alcoholic beverages with you, and that helps keep the total cost down. For five people, we paid $15 each and were stuffed. Based off this first visit, I'd say Szechuan House is pretty comparable to Asia Cafe. I like them both, a lot! Just wish we had one of these down south!

The following week, we had a small blogger gathering at Quattro Gatti, an Italian place downtown (908 Congress Avenue) that's been open a few years, but doesn't get a whole lot of buzz. Blogger Food Fash has eaten there a few times, and arranged with the owner for us to come in and try the food in exchange for some social media mentions. (We paid for our beverages, but the food was complimentary; we were not paid for our opinions of the food.)

Gianfranco started us off with a couple of the different pizzas, and gave us a personal demonstration of how they shape the dough and cook the pizzas. The four formaggi (four cheese) pizza is above, and here he is at the pizza oven discussing how they're made. He was very animated and passionate about his pizza (as well he should!), which cook for only a few minutes in a special wood-burning pizza oven that gets ridiculously hot; the pizza should have a crust that is a bit crisp, but still chewy and toothsome.

This is the saffron risotto, not my personal favorite because I am not a huge lover of saffron, but the color was gorgeous.

One of the evening specials was housemade papparadelle with rabbit ragu, and it was fantastic! I think we all agreed this was the best dish of the night. Supple ribbons of pasta with a sauce that had a lot of flavor, but was not heavy.

And just when we though we were completely stuffed, they sent out five different desserts! From top left: affogato, cannoli, tiramisu, biscotti with vin santo (sweet wine for dipping the biscotti), and a brownie/fudgy tarte decadent combination. And between eight of us, we finished them off pretty well!

Thank you again to Gianfranco for welcoming us. I spied some items on the menu that I'd love to go back and try sometime, like carbonara, paninis and roasted sea bass. If you happen to find yourself downtown, go and check Quattro Gatti out!

I was invited to an open house at Walton's Fancy and Staple on West 6th Street. If you're not familiar with them, they serve breakfast and lunch, and have a beautiful pastry case. But they also do catering and floral arrangements, as they aim to be a one-stop shop for your party needs. I loved this tall floral piece, and they also had fun ones hanging throughout the room.

Their "Hideaway" room was set up for the event; it seats up to 30 guests if you're looking for a place to hold an event. Their catering can of course also come to you!

It's been good pickins! No complaints about any of these Austin eateries!

Recent Eats, part one

I got to celebrate my birthday at the end of March with my parents in town, which lead to many (ok, all!) meals out. So here's a recap of the highlights, as well as a couple of events I attended, and some other meals -- the good, the great, and luckily only one bad. I feel fortunate to live in such a great food city!

Birthday celebrations started at The Flying Carpet and Regal Ravioli trailers! Special thanks to Maria, Abdu, and Zach  -- these guys all do such great work (and both do catering!) -- go check them out and tell them I sent you!

Lunch at Sway, their tom kha soup had such a flavorful broth! It's also a clear broth, not a coconut milk-based one, and while it was still rich in flavor, it was relatively light. I could eat this everyday.

Brunch at Barlata; they have some traditional dishes like their take on French toast called Torrijas, with a wonderful array of fresh fruit, and this house-cured salmon was simple and tasty.

Dinner at Uchi, the one place my father HAD to visit while they were here, and I was more than happy to oblige. This was one of the nightly specials, perfectly cooked wagyu beef with sweet potatoes done three ways: pureed, roasted, and somehow made into light as air crisps.

An invite to Paggi House, to try their new spring menu. We were treated to a multitude of dishes, from delicious herbed butter with the bread to this tuna with coconut panna cotta (that's my interpretation of it at least) to braised veal cheeks over polenta (one of my favorites of the evening) to a marvelous grasshopper brownie concoction with "dirt" that was delicious. Plus during April, they are donating money from sales of their signature cocktails to the Glimmer of Hope Foundation for their summer camp programs. (I was invited to try their food, but was not paid for my opinion.)

Lunch with a friend at the new East Side King on South Lamar. I have really loved the trailers, but haven't been in a while. We opted for the old standbys from the trailers, and am sorry to say we were left disappointed. From top left, the Brussels sprouts hardly had any Brussels, it was mostly cabbage; the chicken kara-age was soft, no crispness to the pieces; the fried beets were soggy; and the pork belly bun was just alright. I Instagramed this same photo and expressed my sentiments; happy to say someone from ESK responded with apologizes and said they would notify the kitchen of the issues. Now whether things improve, that remains to be seen, and from comments left on the photo, others have noticed a decline in quality at the trailers as well.

A dinner meeting at Stiles Switch BBQ. I have heard very mixed things about this place from day one, and from various people who's food opinions I trust. They made Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ places in Texas,  and clearly Texas Monthly was there on a good day. I'd say this meal was ok, but nothing spectacular. I got the three meat sampler plate: pork ribs not bad, sausage had a really really fine grind, I like mine a bit chunkier, and the brisket on the right.... it was cut really thick, had no smoke ring, and was quite dry. Great BBQ is all about consistency, and based on this one meal, I don't see how they get the high marks. The service though was uber-friendly, and they do get kudos for that!